Kirista Rabain heads to the International Equestrian Federation World Jumping Challenge Final in Bulgaria this week.

The 23-year-old qualified for the event by being first in her qualifying group that included countries such as Jamaica, Trinidad, and Cayman Island.

Now she is representing her country against some of the top amateur jumpers in the world in an international competition geared towards smaller countries.

“This competition is for islands like ourselves and places that don’t get the opportunity to compete at high international levels,” Rabain said.

Rabain will compete in showjumping, one of the equestrian events represented in the Olympics. In the event, riders manoeuvre through a course of jumps, aiming for the fastest time without knocking any of the jumps over.

The Bermuda College graduate has been inspired to compete by her lifelong love of horses.

“When I was younger, about seven, I would see a horse and just have a temper tantrum,” she said.

“My poor parents just had to deal with it. I had to touch it, I had to ride it, whatever it was I had to just be by that horse.

“I started riding at seven at Spicelands Riding Centre, got my first pony at ten. And then about two to three years ago I started working at Hinson Hall, which opened up a lot of great opportunities for me with riding horses.”

Rabain qualified for the event through several strong runs on her horse Helsinki, but has been acclimatising herself with riding other horses in preparation for the event. Because of the high cost of transporting horses, riders are randomly assigned horses and have a few minutes to get familiar with them before the competition.

“For me, I have to learn what the ‘go’ button is,” Rabain said. “Because jumping is about speed, as well as keeping the jumps up, so you have to know that you can get your horse to the jump fast, but you also have to be able to slow them down and balance them when you need to.”

Rabain leaves today for the weeklong competition.

“I try not to get overconfident, but I’m trying to do pretty well,” she said. “I’ve been doing a lot of practice this month riding different horses, and I feel really good. I’ve had good rides on them.”

Rabain is working in accounting and finance and will look to continue her studies at Mount St Vincent College through Bermuda College while continuing to ride.

“It would be great to get a nice sponsorship and be able to ride under someone great and learn a lot and compete, but at the same time you need to make enough money that you’re not a slave to it,” Rabain said.

“Whatever doors open I’ll consider.”